Activision Reveals Call of Duty Plans, Including New Developer and Genres (Updated)

While rumors continue to swirl about Call of Duty series creator Infinity Ward and the departure of its leaders under allegations of insubordination, owner Activision has outlined its future plans for the blockbuster and best-selling franchise.

As expected, this fall's iteration--unofficially dubbed Call of Duty 7--is being helmed by Call of Duty 3 and World at War veterans Teryarch, but that's far from all.

Unsurprisingly, 2011 will also see Activision release a new Call of Duty game. Furthermore, the first-person series will be veering into "the action-adventure genre" through a new entry crafted by freshly formed studio Sledgehammer Games.

In addition, Activision is forming "a dedicated business unit that will bring together its various new brand initiatives with focused, dedicated resources" with plans to "expand the Call of Duty brand with the same focus seen in its Blizzard Entertainment business," such as "new geographies, new genres and with new digital business models."

In keeping with that theme, Activision revealed that it is "in discussions with a select number of partners to bring the [Call of Duty] franchise to Asia, one of the fastest growing regions for online multiplayer games in the world."

As for Infinity Ward's role in all of this, today's statement noted that the studio "is in development on the first two downloadable map packs for Modern Warfare 2" and named Steve Pearce (Activision Publishing CTO) and Steve Ackrick (Activision Publishing Head of Production) as the two who will be leading Infinity Ward on an "interim basis."

Update: "Infinity Ward remains central to Call of Duty's future," Activision affirms in an internal memo acquired by G4, suggesting that IW will continue to work on the series.

Yeah I know. IW won't exist after this all those guys are going to jump ship who would stay if they could go to another studio as long as it is in the same area. It doesn't even sound like Activision is paying the IW people a bonus. That team is dead.